


Into My Heart

by SaraJaye



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Battle, Canon Compliant, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Chronology, Crying Shiro (Voltron), First Kiss, Grief/Mourning, Hugs, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Pining, Shiro (Voltron) in the Astral Plane, Shiro backstory, Terminal Illnesses, The Power Of Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 02:29:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16924839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: When Shiro learned he was living on borrowed time, he tried to distance his loved ones to spare them the pain. But somehow, Keith found his way into his heart, and now Shiro would do anything to keep him as close as he can.





	Into My Heart

His normal childhood had come to a screeching halt the day they learned that not only was Dad dying of a degenerative muscle disease, but that he'd also passed it down to his oldest son. Takashi Shirogane was perfectly healthy, but someday the disease would manifest, and it would be downhill from there.

Dad died when Takashi was thirteen. Four years later, Takashi started experiencing muscle pain and stiffness, and when the doctor confirmed the disease was settling in for a permanent stay, he decided to distance himself from his family. Watching Dad waste away and die for four years had been hard enough on them; he remembers Ryou's tears and Mom's effort to hold the family together even as she was breaking apart.

He dropped all contact with them after graduation.

Falling in love with Adam had been an accident. Shiro was content to live the rest of his life for the skies and the galaxies, but Adam Weiss was the quietly persistent sort, and deep down Shiro didn't _want_ to be alone. They hit it off, fell in love, and the four years that followed were some of the best of Shiro's life.

Then Adam walked away, and Shiro let him. All Adam wanted to do was take care of him for the rest of their lives, and Shiro chose Kerberos. Remembering what Mom went through with Dad, not wanting to put Adam through the same pain, he let go of the one person who'd truly made him happy in years.

When the Galra captured him, for a split second he felt a twisted sense of relief. He'd die in space, alone, in captivity, instead of returning to Earth to face painful reminders of loved ones left behind. To a young man he cared for so deeply but feared getting closer to, because Keith needed to find his own path.

Keith knew Shiro was slowly dying. He'd barely said anything about it, and the day Shiro left for Kerberos Keith had hugged him so tightly, begging him to come back safe. _You still have a lot to teach me, we've got so many more rides to take! And...you're all I have._

As time passed, thoughts of Keith became stronger, filled him with a determination to survive. He had Keith, and he would get back to Earth to see him again even if it was the last thing he ever did.

 

Keith was the one person he could never walk away from. After Adam, he'd tried to renew his promise not to get attached to anyone else, but this troubled young man had snuck his way into his heart, like some kind of ninja. As a brother at first, but something _changed_ the moment he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Keith's tearful smile.

"Welcome back."

He fell in love with Keith at that moment, and there was no turning back. Even learning of Keith's Galra blood changed nothing, this was still the man who saved him, always had his safety and comfort in mind, supported him.

Keith. The man he loved.

 

Dying. Actually dying, feeling his body dissolve into nothing, for a split second it _hurt_ and then, suddenly, he could see everything. Keith's struggles to accept his new role, the tears he struggled to hold back and only shed when the others weren't around to see, his exhaustion as he spent more time looking for Shiro than he did training with the others. His identity issues, the pain he felt as he tried to balance being a Paladin and a Blade of Marmora, his sorrow as he chose the latter and struggled with _that._

The other him.

A bedraggled man rescued by Keith, treated as if he _were_ still Shiro, but it _wasn't;_ Shiro knew what was going on and had a sense of what was about to happen, but every effort to warn the others proved futile. Even during a battle, when he managed to reach Lance for a few seconds, their connection broke.

He watched his other self fall under Haggar's control, attacking Keith, and no matter how much he screamed there was no reaching them, no stopping it.

 _I love you!_ The words reverberated in his heart, and he struggled to reach his clone, to find some way to tell Keith _I love you too_ but no one could hear him, Haggar was firmly in control.

_I love you_

Keith let go of the platform, let himself fall into space.

_KEITH!_

 

"Keith."

"S-Shiro?! Shiro!"

"Keith." He was terrified, confused, lost. "Everything's fine. The team's safe, I'm not here to harm you. That...thing you fought..."

"Shiro, what..."

"This is the Black Lion's consciousness. I've been here ever since the fight with Zarkon."

Inhale. Exhale.

"I died, Keith."

The image of devastation in those eyes would haunt him as Keith faded back to the world of the living.

 

He wasn't sure how much time passed before he opened his eyes again. Dizzy, disoriented, he felt...whole, almost. His Galra arm was gone, he felt weak and exhausted, but he immediately recognized the soft, relieved gaze looking down at him.

_Keith. My Keith, even after all of this..._

"Shiro."

He collapsed into the other's waiting, open arms.

"You found me." Tears dripped onto his cheeks, he wasn't sure if they were his or Keith's.

 

It was three years when they finally landed back on Earth, thanks to Lotor and the quintessence rift.

Adam was dead.

"He was one of the first pilots Sanda sent up against the Galra. None of them stood a chance," Iverson said, and Shiro shut his eyes, fighting back tears. Adam, his first love, the man he would have proposed to if things had gone differently.

Too much time had passed, too much had changed for them to rebuild what they'd had back then. But Shiro had always hoped that someday they could at least clear the air between them, maybe be friends again or at least have _some_ kind of closure.

What had Adam's last thoughts been, as his plane went down?

Shiro ghosted his fingers over the photograph beside Adam's name, whispering an apology, head bowed so that Iverson couldn't see the tears starting to escape.

 

"Shiro?"

"Oh, Keith." Of course Keith was waiting for him in his old room, loyal as ever. "What's up?"

"Listen, James told me about...about..." He hesitated. "Sorry, you probably don't want to talk about it. But, you know, if you do..."

Those eyes, looking at him with such concern, just like always. _I love you._ Shiro's gaze dropped to the scar on Keith's cheek, the mark _he_ left during the fight they hadn't talked about.

_You attacked him. You threatened him, you said the most hurtful things imaginable and he still would have let himself die rather than let you fall. After everything, he loves you._

"Keith," he said, swallowing, his throat suddenly dry. "Listen, about...about that day, I..." His fingers reached out to stroke that scar, and Keith's fingers caught his.

"Don't." He squeezed Shiro's hand. "It wasn't you. It's okay, I know you too well." But they _needed_ to talk about it, Shiro thought, or at least _he_ did. There was so much he felt was left unresolved, too much time lost, and they were fighting a _war_. Any of them could be the next to die, and if he lost Keith, he didn't know what he'd do.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he closed the distance between the two of them and pulled Keith to his chest, hugging him as tightly as he could with only one arm, burying his face in his hair. Keith stiffened for a moment before leaning in and returning the hug.

"Shiro?"

"I never thanked you for all you did for me, and I don't know where to begin," Shiro whispered. "Just...just let me, for a while. Let's stay like this." Because he was afraid if he let go too quickly, Keith would disappear, just like Adam did. Keith's arms tightened, and Shiro felt him smile against his chest.

"We'll stay like this forever if that's what you need."

Shiro wished time could stop at that very moment.

 

He was fitted for a new arm, powered by an Altean crystal. During a diagnostic check, Sam announced that his new body was disease-free. Shiro would live to a ripe old age, possibly longer.

For the first time in years, Shiro thought about his mother and Ryou, and he missed them. Maybe when this was all over, he'd find them and apologize.

 

The fight with Sendak was as brutal as he imagined. Facing the monster who'd taunted him into a near-mental collapse once, nearly killed Lance and tried to destroy all of Arus. And back then, Shiro had been a sad, broken man who'd set Sendak free just to rid his own mind of torment.

_If I hadn't let you go, you'd never have had a chance to come to Earth, and Adam would still be..._

There was no changing the past, but he'd be damned if he let this _bastard_ take any more lives.

In the end, though, it was Keith who took Sendak's life, and Shiro breathed a sigh of relief that it was just _over._ Sendak was gone, he couldn't hurt anyone else, and once again, Keith was by his side.

"Thank you."

_I love you, too._

 

Even with all he'd been through in the last few years, Shiro could only count three times he'd ever been so afraid he thought he'd die. Learning he was about to lose his father, being captured by the Galra, and now, watching the Lions crash land on Earth after taking out that mysterious Robeast.

" _Keith!_ "

He pushed past the crowds, towards Black's fallen form, tears stinging his eyes. Adam's memorial flashed through his mind, for a split second he imagined Keith's name and his heart wrenched painfully. But Keith was still breathing, still had a pulse as Shiro carefully gathered his unconscious form in his arms.

_Please be okay. Please._

 

He couldn't be in the hospital room when Keith opened his eyes, the Garrison needed him to give a speech. But he was hurrying there as soon as he could, Krolia and Kolivan giving him a knowing look as they excused themselves.

"Hey." Keith smiled. He didn't look too much worse for wear, just a bandage around his head and a few cuts here and there. "Nice speech."

He was conscious, the doctors had said he was hurt no worse than the others, and he'd be discharged along with them. But the memory of finding him unconscious in Black blurred into the Blade of Marmora trials, his near-suicide attack on Naxzela, their fight, every time Keith had been hurt or in danger and Shiro _couldn't be there._

Into Adam, sent to die against Sendak. Adam, who died without ever hearing an apology.

_I could have lost you. I could have lost you so many times, Keith, and you'd die never knowing I..._

He sank down onto the bed beside Keith, hugging him tightly, burying his face in his hair as he let his tears flow. Keith gasped, immediately hugging him back. Just like always.

"Shiro...hey, don't cry, I'm okay. I'm alive."

"Keith." The feel of the name on his tongue, the warmth of Keith's body against his, breath against his neck. "Keith, Keith..."

"Hey, Shiro." Keith pulled back, fingers reaching up to wipe away his tears.

"I love you." He'd put off saying it too long, if anything had gone even slightly differently Keith would be _gone._ No more being silent, no more leaving it unsaid and assuming Keith _knew._ There was something to be said for unspoken love, but Keith _deserved_ to hear it.

They'd both been alone for so long, Keith by the tragic circumstances life dealt him and Shiro by choice. Both afraid to let others in. Only now did Shiro realize _this_ was why he'd kept Keith so close despite his own fear, and now there _was_ none. He wasn't going to die, and Keith was alive.

"I love you, Keith. I'm sorry I took so long to say anything, but from now on I'll tell you as many times as you need to hear it." Keith smiled, blinking away tears of his own.

"Just promise you'll always stay here with me," he whispered. "Because if you ever disappear again, I'll fly as far as the end of the universe to find you again." Shiro smiled.

"I wouldn't expect any less from you. But I'll make sure you never have to again."

Their lips met in a soft, quick kiss, salty and wet with tears. Shiro laid down on the bed, Keith in his arms, and they fell silent. Taking in every bit of each other's warmth, allowing themselves this respite, the weight of all they'd gone through slowly lifting.

 _When this is over, I'm going to call my mother and Ryou. I'm going to tell them I'm sorry, and bring you home to meet them,_ he silently vowed to himself, and to Keith. They'd survive to see that day, too.

Death was just a small roadblock for them anyway.


End file.
